The organization mainly tasked with law enforcement is the Swedish Police Service. In addition, under certain circumstances other government agencies can be tasked with law enforcement, including investigations, arrest/probatory powers, or enforcement of judgments. Just like in the United States, Swedish law has provisions similar to the U.S. Posse Comitatus Act which limits the use of the military to perform the tasks of law enforcement agencies in time of peace.[citation needed]

This rule has recently come under review, in light of the upsurge of terrorist activity following the 9/11 attacks and the bombings in Bali, Madrid and London it has been suggested that the military should be allowed to aid the police in certain situations of heightened tension.[citation needed]

The Swedish Prosecution Authority (Swedish: Åklagarmyndigheten) is the principal agency in Sweden responsible for public prosecutions. It is headed by the Prosecutor General of Sweden.

Swedish prosecutors, belonging or not to the authority, are responsible for leading and supervising criminal investigations done by the Swedish Police, and preparing and presenting cases for the courts. The prosecutors also hold a number of quasi-judicial powers like, though not officially, acting as judges in several misdemeanor cases.

There are also a couple of Swedish prosecution agencies, independent of the SPA such as the Swedish Chancellor of Justice, which is independent of the national government, and the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Chancellor of Justice is responsible for supervising the lawfulness of government actions. The Parliamentary Ombudsman is responsible for supervisiing public authorities and also has powers to act as a special prosecutor and bring charges against public officials for malfeasance or some other irregularity. This happens very rarely.

The Chancellor, roughly the Attorney General of Sweden, acts, besides supervising lawyers and public officials, as a special prosecutor in several cases. The Chancellor does have, as being a prosecutor, investigative powers in cases regarding misconduct of lawyers and public officials, and violations of the Swedish laws dealing with press freedom.

The connection between the military police units and the Life Guards is similar to the structure in the Swedish Police Service; the Life Guard is responsible for service, coordination and development of the military police, and the local unit is responsible to investigate and keep law and order at the camp.

Originally, Swedish police cars were black. In the 1960s, the cars were painted black with white fenders and roof. The roof was later painted black on request from the police forces in northern Sweden as a white roof made the car nearly invisible in the snow. In the 1980s the cars were painted white with discreet stickers and police crests in blue and yellow.

This led to less visibility and received criticism. Therefore, the fenders were painted blue and the stickers changed, making the cars look like in the 1960s but in blue instead of black. As of 2005, Sweden uses blue and fluorescent yellow stickers according to the Battenburg pattern. Most of Swedish police cars are either Volvos or Saabs.